


Gold Leaf Flakes

by TTMIYH



Category: Homestuck
Genre: (Jane pops a Xanax cuz she hates planes), Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Crocker Corp, Drug Use, Emotional Constipation, F/F, Implied/Referenced Incest, Islands, Kissing, Massage, Minor Jane Crocker/Jake English, Multi, Overworking, Self-Esteem Issues, Step-Sibling Incest, Stress Relief, Unrequited Love, Vacation, alcohol use, body issues, dieting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-20 04:35:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18985390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TTMIYH/pseuds/TTMIYH
Summary: "It's hard being an heiress. The best thing to do about is talk about it with people who really understand the pressures you're under. Maybe it's a good way to relieve some of those pressures too."





	Gold Leaf Flakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oncewewerezombies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oncewewerezombies/gifts).



Jane Crocker tapped her foot impatiently along the sidewalk, waiting for her ride to arrive. She had gotten all gussied up, shower and makeup and her best suit, and to have the driver be late was just the cherry on top of an already stressful day. She had files to send out and reports to make, an attempt again on wooing Jake English so that she could eventually both a: have his kids ( _God_ ), and b: get more leverage for a possible corporate merger with Skaianet, she had coffee to drink and employees to chastise and oh so many things to do with her life that it was making her head spin. The sky was a bright, cheery blue overhead, just like her eyes, and she thought that was awfully funny. What was so cheery about winning all the time?

It took a full eight minutes and seventeen seconds of waiting past the designated arrival time before her pickup actually arrived, and when it did, she was too tired to notice that the limousine wasn't quite the one she typically rode to work in the morning. It was close enough, but just a little notch higher on the luxury meter, a little bit taller.

On the inside, a little more pink and gold.

She set her handbag down, yawned, and looked blearily at Feferi, who gestured to the door as it shut itself politely. The driver silently began to do their duty, and Feferi gave Jane a little wave and a smile. Feferi Peixes, her step-sister, and an incredibly important shareholder for CrockerCorp - with her, Jane, and Meenah, they formed the "Trifecta", owning a collective 45% of the company, giving them a strong enough voting bloc to mostly enact their will upon the remaining 9% not owned by their Mother. And when she passes, they'll divide the remaining 46% amongst themselves, as heiresses are made for.

"Morning, Jane!" She chirped, grinning to show off all those orthodontist perfect picture-magazine ecstatic stellar amazing pearly whites, those sharp little canines and incisors that ran on...  _that_ side of the family. "Sleep well?"

"No. Not particularly." Jane replied humorlessly, sucking coffee through the mouthpiece of her typical morning cup. Enough sugar and cream to make a child's sweet tooth weep, and then on Fridays, when she needed to be a bitch, she'd start her day off with black coffee instead. Suffice to say, this Friday was no exception from the norm, the bitter taste scorching her mouth more than the heat (which was reasonable). The caffeine began to strike her brain immediately in an awe-inspiring wave, and even if it was placebo, it was still helping.

"Aw, that's a shame!" Feferi said, somehow managing to sound sad and excited at the same time. "Well, you know why I'm here, right?"

"I can't say that I do in that regard either," Jane responded, taking another sip of coffee, letting its heat warm her core. Feferi pursed her lips to one side as if in thought, rubbing her chin.

"Okay, that's fine! I'll give you the short version. We're taking you on a vacation!" Feferi finally got around to explaining, flashing her winning smile again and throwing her hands up in an invisible cheer, waiting for an audience to respond. Jane cocked an eyebrow and just kept drinking. "The employees under you have been talking a lot about how stressed you seem recently. So..."

"Oh,  _have_ they?" Jane bit back, apropos of nothing. She was just one of those people who would drink out of a "Don't talk to me unless I've had my coffee mug" if she didn't have any sense of decorum (which, thankfully, she considered herself the possessor of in abundance). "I'll have them know I'm  _perfectly_ fine and  _very_ unstressed."

Feferi giggled, a tone that would've seemed mocking had it come from anyone besides Feferi - the most sincere person Jane knew. Or at least #2. "You certainly don't seem it! Anyway, you've been personally invited to Mom's favorite island for the weekend. She's cleared the place out for us and made herself scarce, so it's just gonna be you, me, Meenah, and the workers. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Jane couldn't help rolling her eyes. Already, the driver was beginning to deviate from her normal morning route, and she felt pangs of anxiety rip through her as if she wasn't just told what was up. Where was she going and why was it not to work? It was a Friday, she had people to instruct, productivity metrics to meet, reports to read. She had received this job from her Mother personally, same as every other C-level in Crocker Corp, and she would be damned if she slacked off enough to the point that some B-list manager a tier below her could usurp her. "But what about my branch?" She asked in response, avoiding the question.

"Oh, it'll run without you fine for a day. Don't worry. I  _promise_ we'll get everything you need for a perfect weekend of rest and relaxation. You can be hands-off for a spell! Everything will be right where you left it when you come back. Pinky promise." Feferi droned on, getting up, walking across the limousine, and squatting in front of Jane so that she could reach out a hand and an outstretched pinky. Jane sighed, yawned, and hooked her own finger around Feferi's, letting the promise get locked with a shake of digits that collected into a shake of hands.

Feferi stood up, back to her full height (shorter than Jane or Meenah), and bent over to kiss Jane on the top of her head. Despite herself, she found the gesture excessively comforting, a small measure of joy that she somehow hadn't felt in a very long time, and Jane slumped into the chair, finishing off her coffee lazily. Feferi sat down next to Jane, their thighs just barely touching, and leaned her head on Jane's shoulder. "It'll be a little while before we get to the airport, so you might as well shut your eyes and get some preemptive chill in."

Even though she had just chugged a black coffee in about five minutes, Jane thought this was an excellent suggestion. The presence of a warm, familiar, comfortable body next to her made it easy for her to lean back up against Feferi, hands playfully scrabbling against each other until they intertwined once more as they had years ago, when she had first properly been introduced to her step-sister at a shareholder meeting. Jane turned her face to kiss Feferi on the top of the head, returned to a neutral position, and let her eyes droop shut, caffeine unable to stave off the oncoming power nap.

* * *

The trip to the squirreled away little airstrip where their private jet was parked was uneventful, even as the sun rose from her low-brow dull red into a roaring sky blue, white sphere hanging straight ahead, beating down on them in the hot spring atmosphere. A parked car, a tip for the driver, and up into the plane. Feferi, always the event planner, had thoughtfully packed a number of Jane-appropriate luggage items aboard pre-emptively, and Jane tried her best to relax into her seat, thinking only of her empty desk and how nice it would be to sit in a stiff office chair right now.

The plane slowly rumbled to its flight speed and began to take off, always Jane's least favorite part of flying. She kept her eyes thoroughly shut, avoiding looking out the spacious and generously sized windows. To see the world drop away from beneath her, people to ants and cars to dolls, then cars to ants and people to molecules just out of sight, buildings into floor plans and streets into gridlines, it always filled her with a sense of dangerous unease, like her plane was about to drop out of the sky, taking her kicking and screaming along with it. She wasn't quite afraid of heights. Once she had picked up into the clouds, then she could open her eyes and take in the Xanax-fueled view, but until then, until she was sure she could look down and not see a damn thing, she kept them screwed slightly shut.

"You know we could just put the shades up, right, Jane? Or give you a face mask?" Feferi asked, always prepared to suggest the simple solutions to her. Jane waved her away as she blearily opened her eyes once they reached a cruising altitude. The plane had barely changed since the last time she rode in it about half a year ago, give or take some change - a lavish, leather-coated interior in stylish whites and golds, couches, tables, futons, recliners. A fancy lamp distinctly unsuited for flight, but it hadn't fallen over yet, so it was unlikely to do so in the future. A television played gentle raining sounds in the background, providing a soft, cushiony sort of comfort space.

"I'm fine. Not going to waste your effort or your sunlight, I know how much you like the stuff." Jane said back, trying hard not to sound snippy. Her voice was slightly slurry and mushy with the flight-enabling relaxant, and the caffeine crash had begun to seep off of her, leaving her uncomfortably alert about the whole arrangement. An eight-hour flight even in this reasonably high-speed jet meant a lot of time to be spent in close quarters with Feferi, which was at least something to look forward to. Jane had a somewhat low opinion of her own appearance, squishing down the fat with well-tailored clothes and the like, but hearing kind words from the inarguably most attractive of the CrockerCorp heiresses about herself always helped to put a spring in her step, no matter how outwardly crabby Jane sounded. Doubtlessly, she sounded like kind of a bitch at the moment.

Feferi extracted herself from the couch she had been lying on, and Jane's eyes creaked open just enough to see her once she heard barefooted footfalls on the carpet. Feferi reached over and hit the recliner button on Jane's chair, causing it to spring backwards and sort of force her into a recline, while the tan-skinned Peixes leaned over the armrest, bumping her forehead against Jane's. "Jeez, you should've told us you were this stressed earlier!" She teased, grabbing one of Jane's hands in both of her own, rubbing her thumb against Jane's knuckles. My oh my, that felt lovely. Keep doing that. Wait, did she say that out loud? No, just in her head. 

"Keep doing that," Jane asked, trying not to use her managerial voice on poor sweet Feferi. "Please."

Feferi giggled, her infectious, high pitched giggle, and used both of her thumbs to press and rub into Jane's hand, while Feferi leaned into the space of the chair's back unoccupied by Jane's torso or head. "Sure thing! Anything for you, Jane!" Feferi cheered quietly, rubbing tiny, pleasant circles into Jane's palm with expert efficiency. The three of them all had their various skills and specializations, and Feferi was the heiress most prone to physicality. While Jane languished in an office, managing a business, and Meenah was busy multiplying her stocks and bonds and lobbyists, Feferi was off handling the PR, so to speak. CrockerCorp heiress Feferi Peixes plants 1000 trees singlehandedly! CrockerCorp heiress Feferi Peixes pledges to donate x amount of their yearly profits to the restoration of the Great Barrier Reef! The headlines helped to keep things afloat, appropriately enough.

And Feferi didn't plant all those trees for nothing. The girl had a pair of arms on her that could uproot a trunk given sufficient time and motivation, powerful arms that started working knots and tension out of Jane's forearm. All Jane could do was lean back into the chair and let out a low grunt of assenting pleasure, feeling an awe-inspiring tingle run up. Oh, that tingle was blood flowing properly again, for the first time in what felt like absolute ages. Grind and grind and grind the circular motions went, finding all of those little pressure points of stress that Jane had developed through weeks of consecutive keyboard marathons, wearing her fingers and arms out. The elbow was mostly skipped over, but feeling Feferi's grip traveling up to her upper arms more than made up for it.

"You're feeling a little leaner, Jane! Have you been working out?" Feferi complimented, switching it up, pressssssing down with her palms up against Jane's slowly developing muscles. Relief washed through her, relief mixed with the sort of pain that came from a really good massage, the pain you kind of had to weather through since you knew it meant something was getting worked out of you.

"Not enough time. Switched to keto, though." Jane said, minimizing her wordcount for maximum economy of breaths, not wanting to ruin this lovely moment with too much of her own voice. Feferi's squeezing grip helped unclog what felt like a dam of stuffy blood flow, and Jane could feel her fingers tingling so pleasantly, the heartbeat back in her knuckles when she held her fingers together. "Think it's working."

"I'll say! You're reely looking great!" Feferi offered, giving Jane's arm a final little squeeze. "Want me to keep going?"

"Yes, please,  _god_." Jane grunted, attempting to avoid drooling on anything. Her mouth had been hanging open the entire time, despite her best efforts, but it was really only now that she had noticed.

"We're high up enough that you can open your eyes now, by the way! Here, let me just..." Feferi started, before pulling the recliner back into its original shape. A quick check of the watch told Jane that 15 minutes had passed of just Feferi massaging her left arm, and with her eyes open, all she could see was a lovely sea of marshmallow clouds. "Alright, steady steps..." She instructed, helping Jane take that handful of strides over to the couch in the sky and gently helping her onto the pillow-soft cushions. She sunk right in - this must be exactly what laying in clouds must feel like. No, don't be silly, Jane, they're condensed water, you'd fall right through. But it felt like what the imagery of laying in clouds felt like, that she could agree with in her mental dialogue. A fluffy, leathery cloud.

"Can I go up your clothes?" Feferi asked, politely and daintily, pulling over a couple of pillows for her to kneel on so she got a better angle on Jane.

"I'll just take them off... Not a huge issue." Jane mumbled into the couch, beginning to wiggle out of her professional attire. It was more of an issue than she made it out to be, but Jane Crocker's stubborn temper was legendary, even when she still had two or so hours of a Xanax left to go. She was not the kind of person to accept help easily, and she suspected even this vacation had to be done as a sort of surprise for exactly that reason. If it was up to her, she'd rather be working right now, and Feferi knew it, so she stilled herself and let Jane shuffle out of her clothes the best she could. Feferi graciously accepted them, folded them neatly, and set them on the floor before cracking her knuckles, while Jane wiggled about to get comfy in just her bra and undies. Nothing fancy, just utilitarian, plain stuff. It wasn't like she was expecting to have a tryst today, or trying to seduce an English. Just a normal day at work.

"You're definitely looking a little thinner! Do you need Mom to get you some new clothes?" Feferi asked, reaching out to grab Jane's other arm, the one left unmassaged, still stiff and angry and stressed out as opposed to its limp, pleased cousin. Thumbs on palms and bones, pressing and pressing and squeezing and squeezing until new life was breathed into them, a revitalizing, refreshing sensation of pressure and pinpricks. Jane turned her head to the side so that she could speak to Feferi more clearly, watching her gorgeous step-sister work on her arm from a bleary third-person point of view. It was definitely her arm, and she could feel and see everything, and make the connection of Feferi's hands to the feelings in her own hand and wrist and fingers, but it still felt dreamlike. Jane wasn't sure if this was just how she always felt about life, like a waking dream, and it was only coming out now, or if that was her anti-anxiety drug speaking for her mental dialogue. Ultimately, it didn't matter.

"If she _asks_ , tell Mother that I am an adult, and perfectly capable of shopping for my own clothes, as well as my own tailor." Jane snapped, her anger overwhelming her relaxation. For a second, she got the better of herself and a deep worry filled her, that she might've been mean to Feferi instead of mean at their mom, but Feferi's smile pointed back at her eyes and turned into a reassuring grin while Feferi moved her hands to Jane's forearm. Jane took a deep breath and calmed herself down. Count to ten on the inhale, and then ten on the exhale, that's what her therapist had been telling her. Triangular breathing, or somesuch. She let her eyes flutter shut once Feferi found a particularly sensitive spot on her forearm, the spike of electric, squeezing sharpness running down into her spine and making her feet twitch and curl up. "I'm not a child anymore. I can handle my own affairs." She continued, not wanting to leave the statement open.

"No need to tell me twice! Was just an offer, hehe." Feferi pushed aside, moving up to Jane's upper arm. Jane couldn't resist letting a slightly aroused sounding grunt leave her throat when Feferi's palms pushed piles of strain from her second of four limbs. Jane's eyes alternated between half-open and loosely shut, working with the motion and action of Feferi's incredible massaging. Open during lulls in the rubbing, closed during the tighter squeezes. "You really don't like her very much, do you?"

"I didn't think you were the type, either." Jane shot back, deflecting the question. She really wasn't angry at Feferi, but sometimes she was just a little too good at poking at sensitive subjects.

"You're right, I'm not. That's why I don't work myself to the bone for her sake." Feferi answered coolly, finishing up with Jane's other arm. Jane flexed and clenched her fingers a little bit, wiggling her digits with delight before folding them both underneath her head to give her some kind of platform to lean on. Feferi got up to grab some more pillows, to give herself another inch or so of height on kneeling objects, and began to work on Jane's back.

Jane let out a pleased-derisive "Ugh,", mostly from air being forced out of her by Feferi's palms. Feferi crossed them over each other, took in a deep breath, and pushed with a hard thump, like she was trying to perform CPR, and Jane was rewarded for her sibling's efforts with a loud crack of her spine being popped. She moved her hands further up, and gave another push, and got another pop, before putting her hands down closer to Jane's rear, and got one more good crack out of her, leaving Jane feeling limber and loose and pleasant. "I'm not doing it for her sake, I'm doing it for mine." She challenged, while Feferi got to pressing and rolling, using her knuckles to glide along Jane's skin, leaving soft welt-like indents of red that quickly filled back up with paleness.

"But you  _are_ working yourself to the bone, we can agree on that much?" Feferi responded, sounding pleasantly vindicated. "You want to buy out everyone until her share's diluted, I'd like to restructure CrockerCorp entirely, ultimately, we're both looking to pull it out from under her." Feferi summarized, and as Jane sighed, she took the opportunity to push down on a sore spot on Jane's back, making her squeak. "Just different ways of going about it! I like to think mine gives me a lot more time to appreciate the Earth and all the fun stuff we get to do here!"

"Hippie." Jane murmured jokingly under her breath, more than loud enough for Feferi to hear, causing Feferi to switch to using her elbow and push down right on one of Jane's knots. Yes, it hurt like hell, but it felt great, which was Feferi's little way of punishing her for her smart-aleck comment. 

"We only get one planet, Jane! It's so big and beautiful, I don't wanna waste it while I'm around. Should I sit on you to get your shoulders?" Feferi asked, leaning into Jane like she was preparing to get up. They both already knew what Jane's answer was probably going to be.

"Go ahead," Jane affirmed, leading to Feferi standing up, climbing up onto Jane's back, knees to Jane's sides, resting on the couch, and running her hands along Jane's skin. When she went from fingertips to nails, tracing against the finest little hairs there were, Jane curled her feet up and let out a puff of air. "Are you trying to seduce me or help get rid of my so-called "Work-induced stress", Fef?" She joked, knowing full well that the answer was probably both.

"I don't have to answer that!" Feferi sang teasingly, leaning over so that her chest was brushing against Jane's back for just a moment, and then arching herself back up. Feferi's hands fit right into that space between someone's shoulders and their neck, and using the bottom of her thumb, Jane was sent into a world of massage heaven in an instant. She almost swore she could see stars, but she realized that her eyes were shut and that she was probably just seeing everyday phosphenes, or something along those lines. "Plus, did you know that in Japan they actually have people who just keel over at their desks because the work culture is so brutal? It's called "Karoshi", it literally translates into "death by overwork"! And god forbid you just keel over one day, I'd be really sad!"

"When was the last time you were even in Japan, Feferi?" Jane challenged, although her words felt like marbles dripping out of her loose, moaning lips.

"Two months ago! I was helping protest against the whaling industry." Feferi answered, matter-of-factly.

"I suppose you were, weren't you," was really all Jane had in response. She let her mouth hang open without pushing more snarky words or business phrases out of them, and instead focused on the lovely sensation on her back, the warmth of Feferi's body on top of her, her strong fingers kneading dough into appropriate form with what seemed like the barest modicum of effort. Jane didn't realize she had fallen asleep until a lightly sharp  _pop_ woke her up, a stinging on her behind quickly informing her of the circumstances.

"I'll finish up with your legs. Do you want some lotion?" Feferi asked, turning around on the couch so that she was sitting on Jane's back, but facing the other direction.

"If you're going to give me the full spa day, there's no reason to stop at just the massage." Jane attempted to say, although she was sure half of those words got lost in translation between her half-off brain and her lips. 

"You're cod damn right!" Feferi joked, laughing that infectious laugh that somehow managed to get the unflappable Jane Crocker to crack a smile. Feferi's hands certainly took their sweet time roaming around Jane's ass, but that wasn't something she was here to really complain about in any situation, and she certainly wasn't going to start complaining about it now. Little manicured nails teased at the edges of her undies, threatening to pull them right off, but Feferi knew better than to try and do anything that openly lascivious during the first couple of hours of any given flight. Had to wait for Jane to sober up first before any of those shenanigans started occurring.

Still, butt massages were always good, especially when they turned into hip massages (Ah, so sore, but not anymore-) and continued their way down into thigh massages. "Did you go to sch... To... To school for this, or something?" Jane said after a couple of false starts, while Feferi's fingers worked with sniper rifle-like proficiency and accuracy, snapping from target to target in their effort to ruthlessly uproot, remove, and destroy Jane's stressors and pressures via application of brute force. Jane couldn't see Feferi at all from this angle, but she had no doubt that her muscles were tensing up underneath her skin, definitively the strongest of the three Heiresses of them, putting said muscle power to good use. Jane took some time to engage in her flights of fancy, thinking about Feferi's arms while they made short work of her legs. The fat and stretch marks felt very cared for, and she gave her legs a little wiggle, appreciating greatly the free flow of blood while Feferi continued to work and talk.

"I took a couple of certifications for it, yeah! But the last time we were together I didn't have the opportunity to show off, hehe. And now I can!" Feferi answered, grinding the tips of her thumbs into some spot right above the back of Jane's knees, making her clench up and tense, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. When Feferi pulled her thumbs away, Jane exhaled loudly, letting all that energy out. She could see it in her mind's eye, coming out in the form of blackish-rainbowish unlight, the meditation techniques she learned from her therapist. Why that came to mind was beyond her, since she wasn't having an anxiety attack, but visualizing all the dirt and negative energy coming out of her mouth in the form of that smog still brought her a certain level of comfort that she couldn't deny.

"Believe me when I say I am  _so_ glad that you just go and teach yourself anything that catches your eye," Jane mumbled - for anyone else, it would've sounded witheringly sarcastic, but Feferi and Jane were at the level where she could easily decipher Jane's words for the genuine appreciation buried underneath levels and levels of knives and pointy bits. In thanks, Feferi gave her thighs a particularly strong squeeze and then moved down to her calves. "They really do just teach people anything, huh?"

"Well,  _excuuuuuuuse_ me, Princess!" Feferi tried to say without laughing, and failed, rolling her knuckles alongside Jane's calves, along with a heaping helping of downward force. "If it makes you feel any better, I do put the work in! It's not like I have a lot else to do, since  _I_ delegate my chunk of the company to people I trust!"

"A bipolar hacker and a Republican,  _please_." Jane snipped, before growling into a low, rolling sort of chuckle, the kind that came out of someone's chest instead of their throat. Feferi's hands trailed down all limber and gentle, to Jane's ankles, and then up to her butt again, and then back down to her ankles and beyond, grabbing for her feet. Jane squeaked once Feferi began rubbing the soles of her feet, unable to resist the squirms and wiggles that it brought through her body, both in a ticklish way and a  _Jesus Christ was she really getting turned on by a foot rub_? She had gone all this time in her life without discovering that fact, but, as the saying goes, whoop, there it is. She tried not to dwell on it too much, and just appreciated the touches for what they were - pleasant touches.

Feferi got up, climbing up and off from Jane, and bent back down to kiss the back of her head. "How do you feel?" She asked so sweetly, Jane taking the effort to roll over onto her back (slowly, slowly...) until she was facing Feferi once again. Feferi, and the ceiling, a good combination. Jane tested out her heavy limbs, sore from the most thorough and possibly least professional massage she had ever received in her life, and sighed dramatically.

"Alright, Mrs. Masseuse. How much do I owe you?" Jane asked in return, folding her arms up underneath her chest and trying her best to look grumpy. With her tired, sleepy eyes and half-cocked grin, she looked more sleepily seductive than anything else, unfortunately for the sake of her snark.

"Not a thing! But we're not done yet, give me a second and I'll be right back!" Feferi countered, before disappearing from Jane's view. Sure, she just went into the back of the plane's cabin, but to look for her would require getting up and suspending herself up from nothing, or trying to find a pillow to prop herself up with. And, while she was proud of her slowly developing abs, Jane wasn't sure if the impromptu crunches were worth the effort, nor was she sure of any pillows within easy reach, so instead, she stared at the ceiling and contemplated her life. A common thing to do at 1 in the morning, but 11:30 in the morning, less so.

All the choices that had led her here (no matter how few of them, ultimately, were hers). Jake English, no, scratch that one. Feferi and Meenah and her Mother (the latter of which was #1 on her most despised people, the middle was around #12, and the first not on the list at all). The warm, tingly sensation of her heart pumping blood to her muscles and returning deoxygenated blood to her heart, and the common myth of veins being blue because of the blood they contain, or blood being blue underneath your skin until it's exposed to oxygen. Actually, was that a myth? Now that she was thinking about all those throbbing feelings underneath her skin, she wasn't certain of its truthfulness value in the slightest. Maybe she'd ask someone smarter than her when she felt like grabbing her phone and answering one of the dozens of missed calls and missed texts she had doubtlessly racked up (she had actually racked up 0), but that would be in a while. For right now, she enjoyed herself.

Feferi returned about a minute later with a bottle of lotion and full intent to use it, but Jane interrupted her before she could say anything. "I do believe that, knowing you, this is probably going to get a little intimate-"

"Yeah, probably! Hahahee~♪-" Feferi playfully interjected, but Jane continued, undaunted.

"So, for the sake of not muddying the waters, how about we take a quick break for brunch and let my xan run out?" Jane offered, slowly, snail-like, managing to pull herself up into a sitting position. She shook her legs and arms out a little while Feferi nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! I'll start getting to work on something. Do you want another cup of coffee?" Feferi asked, tilting her head and letting all her voluminous, bouncy curls flop mostly to one side.

"Yes, please," Jane answered, getting up, stretching until her back gave off one last pop that Feferi had missed during her relentless hunter-killer mission for spinal popping, and then making her way over to the seats more well-designed for eating, still dressed in nothing but her skivvies. While Feferi disappeared once more, Jane found her pocketbook and pulled her cell phone out, turning it on and waiting for the in-flight wi-fi to kick in. She knew that normal people had to fly without wi-fi, and honestly, the thought kind of terrified her. Not being able to check in on the company you run while taking multi-hour long flights? Absolutely terrifying. The closest thing to a real-life nightmare conceivable. Once the shitty bad unreliable in-flight wi-fi finally gave her the green light to go ahead with her day, without an anxiety attack, she discovered, to her shock and consternation, that there was not a single text or missed call for her. Unbelievable!

Obviously, her next course of action was to simply begin texting people en masse, mostly her upper crust. Dirk and Roxy received the bulk of the exposé, while assorted others got snippets of questions asking sternly for information on how everything was doing. For her first vacation in about four years, things were running absurdly smoothly. Too smoothly, even. A disconcerting amount of smoothness had been injected into her works, especially when she got universal all clears all across the board, a "Don't worry about it, babe!" from her best friend/lead programmer. Her eye twitched a little bit in response.

Engrossed enough in her email-checking (surely something must have gone wrong without her iron oven mitt? No? Nothing?), she didn't notice the time slipping by in undulating waves, minutes as seconds slipping between the cracks and creases until a lovely spread of brunch goodies had been placed in front of her. Feferi pulled one of the tables up and locked it against Jane's, to give them more room to work with. Bagels, lox and its assorted compatriots, pastries, the typical works. A smorgasbord, until Jane frowned at them, at least.

"Is... Is there anything here that I can really eat?" She asked, pointing to the smoked fish with a sad sort of expression. She really did not want to just eat smoked fish by its lonesome, even with cream cheese. Feferi's next revelation shook her world to the core.

"Oh, Jane... It's a vacation! Your diet can wait a little bit." She answered, pushing Jane's refilled coffee cup into her hands. Enough sugar and cream to make a child's sweet tooth weep, blonde like the bleached hair of the girl in front of her. The kind of coffee that a real coffee connoisseur would consider a tragedy - but fuck connoisseurs, Jane had needs to be met and a caffeine addiction to nurse. "C'mon. We'll get you a steak at dinner to make up for it, when was the last time you had a muffin?"

When  _was_ the last time she had a muffin? It was between the last time she saw Feferi and now so... Four months? Five? She honestly couldn't remember, and the sugar-coated chocolate chip called to her like a siren's spell. 

"Fine. You've convinced me, albeit only slightly." Jane huffed, grabbing a muffin off the platter and slowly unwrapping it, an unfamiliar sensation to fingers so used to cheeses and meats out in the open. When was the last time she had a pastry, in general? Didn't she want to be a pastry chef at some point, until her Mother had convinced her otherwise? She could've sworn that was a wish she had as a kid - to settle down with a nice boy and open up a bakery, waking up at 6 in the morning but for different reasons than she did right now. Taking big, delightful bites of breakfast muffin caused an effect on her that she distinctly recalled as the thing that happened to the food critic in Ratatouille, except at this point, it wasn't from the deliciousness of a particular dish, but merely a verbal prodding and chocolate chips.

Really, what was she doing with her life?

She didn't linger on it too long, instead, enjoying the crumbs and the taste and the feeling of the parchment paper folded up into delightful little crinkles, until she noticed Feferi staring at her, cracking half a grin at her playing with a muffin wrapper like some kind of imbecile. Balling it up into a ball, she considered throwing it at Feferi, and then considered the scattering of crumbs across the carpet, and un-considered throwing the wrapper at Feferi. "Did you come to an epiphany staring at a muffin wrapper?" She asked, reading Jane's mind.

"As a matter of fact, buster, I did  _just_ that," Jane answered. "How much paid time off do I have stored up?"

"I'm not your secretary, silly, how should I know?" Feferi replied, but Jane was already crunching numbers on her phone's calculator. Hmm. That was enough time, probably, combined with the fact that she could reasonably take off whenever she wanted. And nothing would fall apart, hopefully, because if something started falling apart while she was enacting this earth-shaking new plan, Jane was going to throw an absolute  _fit_.

"That's okay, I figured it out!" Jane impulsively almost shouted in Feferi's direction. "I think I'm going to... Take an extended vacation! After this one, I mean, and go to culinary school." She excitedly spoke-yelled. She couldn't tell if it was the xanax wearing off, or the euphoria of eating a muffin, or the massage, or the lingering anxiety from being really high in the air, but Jane was feeling a little bouncy and enthusiastic. Very much bouncy and enthusiastic even. "I can take a couple of months and then maybe... Do night classes, or something."

"Are you sure you can handle all that? I know you've just had, like, a big personal moment, and that's really exciting! But the last thing I want is for you to overwork yourself more than you already do, silly! That's the  _opposite_ of the point." Feferi explained. At some point between their conversation, a bagel and some accouterments to said bagel had disappeared into Feferi's mouth, resting comfortably in her stomach.

"No, no, it's fine! Because I think... things can mostly run themselves?" Jane said, albeit slowly. "I'll have to give it a test run, of course, but I think it can work! Hoo hoo, I've never been more excited since... Since..."

Jane came to the shocking realization that she did not remember the last time she was this excited. "Since...?" Feferi continued, trying to prompt more thoughts from the reticent heiress, although definitively not reticence through shyness.

"I don't know!" Jane said, and then busted out into laughter, a real, echoing, pleasant and dorky sort of "Hoo hoo hoo!" that she hadn't summoned forth in a long time. Like a dad surprised when Super Mario Brothers still holds up to scrutiny all these years later, she was enjoying how pleasant her own genuine laughter sounded to her ears. Feferi gave her a small, sly sort of smile, like she had planned this all somehow, but that was ridiculous. How does someone plan a muffin-induced epiphany?

No, this had to be serendipity.

* * *

"Holla holla, Crocker." Meenah said, with the tone of an exclamation but the verbal punctuation of a full stop statement, the plane having finished taxiing down the private runway on the equally private little island. It was by no means the largest in Jane's Mother's collection, but it was her favorite, with a particular combination of wildlife, plants, size, and creature comforts to give her a pleasant little vacation in an exquisite, modern-style home, all squares and fun angles and shiny, smooth surfaces. And, obviously, decked out in white and gold and red and fuchsia, because it wasn't a CrockerCorp property without her favorite colors. Normally, people tended to stick to just one favorite color, but if you tried to tell her Mother that, she'd probably hire a deep web assassin to kill you in one shot. Mother could have as many favorite colors as she damn well wanted, and everyone knew it. "How was the flight? Bumpy?"

"Remarkably smooth," Jane replied, all business. Sure, she was giggly and laughy for the past couple of hours, high off her own excitement at her decision to turn around her life and do something for herself, but that doesn't mean she needed to show weakness in front of Meenah. Meenah was like a dolphin - pleasant to look at and appealing to the public, but secretly ready to pounce on any weakness (did Dolphins pounce, or was it more of a lunge? A dive? She mentally shrugged), and probably a bit too sexually aggressive for her own good. Not that it bothered Jane too much, but woe betide the bachelors and bachelorettes surrounding her for a piece of that supposed action, unaware of what they were getting into. A sudden smile or non-small laugh would be something to be pounced on, and Jane wanted to save the drama for later. "How was yours?"

Feferi's arm hooked around Jane's, the sun slowly beginning her downward descent in the sky, not yet painting it in exquisite pinks and golds, but definitely on the arc to do so in the near future. Jane wasn't going to figure out the time zone math, not today. Jet lag begged her not to. The two siblings walked along the runway like it was an entirely different kind of one, Meenah turning around and walking slowly away from them. In a minute or so, her quiet, stretched movements put her on pace with the rest of them, and they walked as three. "Actually, I swam. Kiddin'. Bumpy."

"Oh, I absolutely would've believed you if you hadn't clarified." Jane shot across the nose, and Feferi giggled. When you had Feferi giggling, that's when you knew you were winning the verbal sparring match, so Jane already felt great, her dress shoes softly padding against the loose dirt of the path. She had always wanted it to get paved over with something, but Mother wanted the "rustic" look, rustic her ass. If it rained it meant they weren't going anywhere, not without ruining at least one set of footwear. In Jane's other hand, a suitcase, and in Feferi's other hand, another suitcase, except slightly smaller and more pink.

"I'm sure you woulda, you believe anyfin' anyone tells ya!" Meenah fired back, and Jane made a thin, pursed line with her lip. What kind of comeback was that, just taking her sarcasm at face value? It was lame. Feferi seemed to think so too, not that Jane considered herself much of a mind-reader yet. "What? C'mon. That was funny."

Feferi slipped her hand into the handle of her luggage, using her wrist to keep pulling so she could make a see-sawing motion with her flat hand, while Jane just snorted out an "Eh.", and that was that. The lame jabs continued, in no particular abundance, all the way to the cabin, and Jane and Feferi took their sweet time unpacking, while Meenah did something that Jane didn't care about elsewhere. Like she had thought earlier in the narration - Jane really wasn't the biggest fan of Meenah, for numerous reasons. Not the least of them was the way they butted heads, the two most stubborn children.

At the very least, though, Meenah was good with a knife. By the time Jane had changed out of her work clothes and into Feferi's pleasantly packed-for-her sundress (one a little big, but that was okay! Not everything Jane wore had to accentuate her curves), Meenah's low, yet sharp voice rang out through the house. "Dinner!". Knowing Meenah, it was probably sushi.

Suffice to say, Jane was unsurprised when it turned out to be sushi, arranged with very little eye for style or flair. It was simply fanned out in the most utilitarian manner possible on a cutting board (albeit parked in some ice), placed out on the dining room table, and left to be consumed. Meenah was very good with a knife, and was one of the few people Jane trusted completely to prepare something dangerous like pufferfish, which was more than she could say about trusting Meenah for almost anything else. As always, fresh fish and good rice and expensive caviar made for a lovely combination in any context. There was no need for exquisite fanciness here when simplicity was its own reward, something that Jane's Mother and Meenah had in common - an enjoyment for a simpler aesthetic. Maybe even "rustic". Bleh. No thank you.

After enjoying their fill, albeit receiving no particular overabundance of epiphanies from it - maybe Feferi did, but she didn't make as big a show of it if so, and Feferi was a pretty big-show-y person, so, Jane was doubtful - Jane and Feferi relaxed on the large couch inset in the floor, doing the polite and respectable thing and walking down the three stairs to get to the pitted section. The couch was gigantic, but they both knew they were going to end up sitting next to each other, since that's what always ended up happening whenever they were in close proximity for more than maybe three seconds.

Unlike Feferi and Jane, Meenah had very little respect for stairs. She had been warned about her habit multiple times, but considering the fact that she never experienced any particular consequences for her reckless disregard for proper vertical mobility actions, it wasn't likely that Meenah was going to stop jumping down stairwells any time soon. Or, in this case, skipping them entirely and just doing a front flip into the couch, an acrobatic fucking pirouette _par excellence_. She hooked a lanky arm around Jane's shoulder from behind, and then around Feferi's head, leaned in on Jane's shoulder.

"So. Feffy here's told me you've had yourself a career change in the future?" Meenah asked, smirking behind her glasses. The light of the room, bright yet minuscule from only a couple of light sources, bounced off her piercings in an... Interesting pattern. One of the beams shot straight into Jane's eye, so when she turned to address Meenah she ended up squinting slightly.

"Oh, did she, now?" Jane asked, and then turned back to get Feferi in her periphery. Her step-sister shrugged and laughed with mock nervousness.

"I was just really excited for you! You seemed all happy about it on the plane!" Feferi admitted, curling herself a little closer to Jane. Aw, fiddlesticks, Jane couldn't remain mad at Feferi for more than an attosecond, even jokingly, not when she was being all cute like this and trying to curl herself up into Jane's lap.

"Indeed I was." Jane continued, Meenah shifting her perfect position ever so slightly thus that the light was no longer bouncing off her glasses or her excessively shiny piercings, showing her eyes once more. "I think I'll be taking an extended vacation after this one. Maybe go to culinary school, become a baker. Or just teach myself the baking trade for personal satisfaction. Why, are you going to try to convince me otherwise?"

Meenah looked a little genuinely surprised. "Whuh? Why would I try ta do that?" She asked, leaving Jane to be the one baffled now. "I always want the best for ya, Crocker. Whateva makes you happy makes us happy."

...Huh? Jane screwed her face up, trying to reconcile this information with her schema of Meenah that had developed entirely in her brain by its lonesome circa, say, three years ago or so. Four? When was the last time she saw Meenah outside of a professional context? Had it been that long?

Oh, oh god no. Was she about to have another epiphany?

Meenah's face was bent inwards with a look of concern. Brows furrowed, hand removed from around Jane's shoulders and instead pressed against her hand. What the fuck, this was the weirdest day of Jane's life bar none, and she got hit on by an actual, literal clown once. Or a juggalo? She didn't think about that particular day that often for obvious reasons. "Are you okay, Crockpot?"

Jane looked back at Meenah, making eye contact with the other girl's startlingly colored pinkish eyes. It's not like Jane's baby blues weren't slightly unnatural in some way, but at least she had a shade that could be humanly achieved. And yet both Peixeses had this same dull pink, and for some reason, she was thinking about that as a point of contention, something she could poke at Meenah at. But why did she even want to poke at Meenah? Was she holding a grudge for something she couldn't remember? Or was she just stressed and the stressed had been warping something that was light teasing at worst into some kind of malformed nightmare entity of her own step-sister? The more she thought about it, the more the latter seemed likely. Holy shit, everything was falling apart. Jane was peeking behind the curtains and it was like someone had put eye drops in her for the first time and it was all smooth and lovely.

Jane laughed nervously. "Yeah, I think I'm fine. It's just been a long day, hoo hoo!" She announced, fanning herself with a single hand. Meenah looked on, unconvinced.

"You just looked pike you were wiggin' out a lil'. You sure? Do you need ta lie down or somefin'?" Meenah asked. Feferi looked back at her with another coy, knowing look, and when Jane saw that cat-like smile imprinted on Feferi's face, Jane knew that Feferi could somehow read her mind, or was in fact far more socially adept and ruthless than Jane had thought. Jane's head creaked towards Feferi's, like a monster in a monster movie twisting their head around 180 degrees, but, well, without the obvious physical impossibilities that would impose. Jane wasn't an owl, she just screeched like one when she was mad, and hooted like one when she was happy.

"I think I'll be fine, promise! But, uh, Feferi, if you don't mind me diverting the conversation to you... Who did you say personally invited me to Mother's favorite island? It wasn't her, was it?" Jane asked. Feferi's smile got wider and more cat-like, while in her new periphery, Jane saw Meenah's confusion grow, but this time it was more perplexment than worry. Like a  _What is she on about and why does it matta'?_ kind of perplexment.

"Oh, I didn't tell you!" Feferi answered, putting her mouth behind her hand and chittering like a little playful mouse.

"Would you mind doing so, then?" Jane asked, a continued series of realizations hitting her like bricks dumped out of a bricklayer's hands on a particularly clumsy day, possibly due to alcohol, possibly due to tiredness, two things that she had experience with in terms of having things slip between her fingers. Thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk the thought bricks hit, leaving one of those cartoonish bumps on her head that only grew taller and taller, no real harm, but amusing to her little mental viewer.

"I did! Planned out the whole thing!" Feferi finally cleared up, with an impossibly proud grin. It looked dangerous, almost shark-like, but still a happy, chipper, comfortable smile. Maybe it would be good to compare her to a whale shark? Mostly harmless, unless you ended up in her way, swimming against her? No, wait, a whale shark would imply unflattering things about her appearance, maybe let's not go there, Jane. Jane turned her head back towards looking at the middle, and then tilted back to stare at the ceiling, a large fan revolving overhead. The second staring-at-the-ceiling, thinking-about-her-life session of the day.

"Someone mind cluing me on what the shell's goin' on?" Meenah asked, a little frustration edging into her confusion. Jane sighed.

"I believe that Feferi has engineered certain aspects of this vacation in order to lead me to have a series of personal revelations about myself, my relationships to other people, and how my excessive overwork is negatively affecting my health, both mental and physical." Jane answered, once no other response found itself quickly forthcoming. Feferi played cute, and let her head come to rest in Jane's plush lap, staring upwards just the same, albeit this time she could see Meenah from where she was at.

"I mean, it wasn't, like, a meticulously designed thing! The muffin thing was all you. I'm not some mad "just as keikaku"'d genius, I just invited Meenah along and figured a family outing with the three of us would help you unwind! Think about things with a clearer head." Feferi elaborated, swiping at the air loosely with her palms. Meenah sighed, shook her head, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I don't know what a keikaku is, Fef." She groaned, giving Jane and Feferi an opportunity to take a small giggle at her expense.

Jane, however, was familiar with Death Note, at least casually, and the memes surrounding it. Mostly through osmosis, considering her cousin and Dirk's predilection towards the... What was the word, "weeaboo"esque? Either way, she was knowledgable enough about this particular meme. It's not as if one of her close friends had made her suffer through a two-hour long dissection of that single line, picking apart every little nuance of it in a deep dive towards a more complete understanding of comedic theory as to why "Keikaku means plan" is funny. No. Nobody would ever put her through that, or she would have to throttle them.

Sigh. "Keikaku means plan, Meenah. It's an old meme from, like, 2010." Jane was the one to be the bearer of bad news in this situation. Meenah laughed, but it seemed like one of those laughs of a non-sequitur, and not because there was anything actually amusing in a purer comedic sense. Oh no, why was Jane thinking like Dirk? Stop it stop it stop it.

"Oh. Why the shell are you usin' memes from 2010, Fef? Don't you have any class?" Meenah teased, giving Feferi a tiny little thump on the shoulder.

"What could possibly give you that impression?"

* * *

There were, of course, separate bedrooms for all three of the Crockercorp heiresses to use at their leisure. In fact, the entire "little" "cabin" had 4 bedrooms (one of which is the master bedroom) and 2 guest bedrooms, but without her Mother in the way, Jane decided, with some encouragement from her step-siblings, that sleeping in the master bedroom would be an excellent course of action tonight.

Not the least of which being that their Mother had a king-sized bed to herself, which was more than enough to fit the three of them.

Their showers, divine, of course, with water pressure that was simply to die for and water at just the perfect level of minerality for Jane's skin. A little snack before bed, and then everyone was off to retrieve their barely-unpacked luggage from their bedrooms to drag them into the master bedroom. Jane got changed in the meanwhile into a long, flowing red nightie. Not quite seductive, but it was still definitely a little testy, and just the slightest hint of translucent. She got to the bedroom first, which meant that she had remote control privilege, and when Meenah came in soon after, Jane passed the remote off. Meenah looked at it like it was a beating heart, and then shrugged and sat down next to Jane, sliding under the comforter and hooking an arm around her step-sister's shoulders, pulling Jane closer, and turning on the TV.

"How exactly do we have television out in the middle of nowhere?" Jane asked, the question poofing into existence into her brain. 

"The television bothers ya but not the wi-fi? It's a satellite, bruh." Meenah explained, and Jane's curiosity was satisfied. With her braids temporarily undone for maintenance purposes, it was easy to see just how much Feferi and Meenah had in common, with Feferi having most of her Mother's figure, but Meenah having most of her intense height and intimidating aura. But outside of that, they were close to twins facially, only piercings and makeup and demeanour able to distinguish them, and when set up, braids. This untangled, Meenah's hair was pretty much identical to Feferi's in length, albeit a little curlier due to being worn in two absurdly long braids all day. She channel flipped until she found Good Eats, and settled with that, setting the remote control aside on the nightstand.

It took a couple more minutes before more words were said. For the most part, they were transfixed by the sight of Alton Brown explaining the difference between kinds of agave nectar for mixed drinks, or something along those lines. Jane turned to Meenah and threw an arm over her exposed stomach, with her older step-sister only dressed in boxers and a loose t-shirt, somehow slightly too big and yet showing off her stomach anyway. Did she cut it like that?, Jane wondered idly to herself. Meenah's skin was warm and flush, compared to Jane's relatively cool body, so Meenah squirmed, and Jane held on tight. She was certain that Meenah didn't mind the way Jane's chest squished into Meenah's side. Especially not with the way Meenah was leering down into her cleavage when she was otherwise not paying attention to the episode on bars and alcohol playing on television. "Say, Meenah..."

"Yeah, Crock?" She responded, snapping to attention, looking back down at Jane until their eyes met. "What's good?"

Jane thought for a moment, considering the best possible way to phrase her incoming inquiry. Her brows furrowed and then relaxed into a happy expression when the solution came to her. "Do you want to come to my neck of the woods sometime and we can get coffee... Or a drink? Whenever's convenient for you. I'll clear my schedule."

Meenah didn't look too surprised, which in itself surprised Jane somewhat, although it didn't show on her cute, round face. Meenah smiled the smile of a wisecracker preparing to serve up an epic joke fastball on a silver platter to home plate, but her voice was all sincerity when it emerged from its cavern. "Yeah, shore. I think that'd be reel nice. Finally openin' back up a lil'?"

"I'm not sure what exactly you're implying with that." Jane stated matter-of-factly. In another situation, maybe a day earlier, she would've said it with venom, but now it was an earnest question: what exactly was Meenah implying?

So, she answered. "I've barely seen fin nor scale of ya for like, what, four years? Like, at boardroom meetin's and that's about it. I know that it's all hard but ya reely've been kind of clammed up tight."

"Meenah, do you have to do the fish puns with me while we're trying to be serious about my apparent social isolation?" Jane tried to interject, because Meenah had accidentally hit too hard and now Jane was starting to want to deflect away from the situation at hand.

"Yes, absolutely." Meenah continued, grinning, running a hand through Jane's damp hair. The sensation made her almost instantly relax a little bit, the foul witch, and now she was in no mood to try and deflect. How dare Meenah take advantage of all those little weak spots that she had intimate knowledge about, every little spot on Jane's body? How dare she. "I think-"

It was about then that the tender moment was interrupted, but not ruined, by Feferi returning from her hair-combing, dressed in a dark, frilly, lacy nightgown of her own. She climbed into bed with a pleased hum, clearly amused by walking in on some kind of insightful heart-to-heart. She really was sly and scheming when she needed to be. Jane felt like all this time in her life she had been completely underestimating Feferi, thinking her some kind of useless socialite who burnt all their company money on frivolous eco-friendly initiatives that brought good PR and little else, but now Jane was beginning to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about Feferi, in much the same way she'd have to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about Meenah. Maybe run the numbers again on her stunts without the critical gaze. That sounded like a smart plan of attack, for when she got home...

No, for when she got back to work. There was a difference that she had to remind herself of. Work =/= home. Work doesn't equal home. Repeat it until your train of thought switches to something else, Miss Crocker.

"Am I interrupting something?" Feferi asked, tilting her head cutely with full understanding that she was interrupting something. Jane play-scowled at her until she climbed into bed under the covers with them, cuddling up behind Jane and sticking her head over Jane's shoulder to participate in the conversation.

"Not really. We were just discussing plans to get tea-"

"Coffee," Meenah corrected.

"Yeah, coffee, and Meenah suggested that I had been closing myself off from the outside world because of my job."

"Which you have been." They both said in unison. Jane sighed and burrowed her head a little further into Meenah's chest.

"Probably." Jane finally admitted. Feferi nuzzled against her, like a playful kitten ready to bat at some god damn wool, her shape as such that she almost perfectly fit into Jane's body from behind, like their spooning situation was made for each other. Jane felt Feferi's bust against her back, and Meenah's arms wrapped around the two of them, and she felt at peace. Almost overflowing with the damn stuff, really. The peace bubbled and burbled through her, causing her to slump like she had just been given a full body massage, but of her emotions instead of her body. Did that even make sense? It's not like it's the first obtuse metaphor her internal narrative has shipped off into her thought-railway in the past twenty four hours, and she doubted it would be the last. She did what she was naturally predisposed to do in this situation, and sighed. "I think I'm overworking myself too much, and it's hurting my connections to my loved ones and myself."

As the saying went, step one of fixing your problems meant admitting you had a problem, right? If you didn't think what you were doing was wrong, then you never had any reason to stop doing it unless someone was trying to force you to change. Jane knew, from what she knew of corporate psychology, but also from personal experience, that you couldn't force people to change if they didn't want to change. If they didn't kick and scream the entire way down, they'd almost certainly resent you in the end, or fall back into their old habits before long, or to force the change you'd have to break something else, like fitting a square peg into a round hole by punching it through the hole, breaking the wood of the child's toy in the process. Jane took deep, even lungfuls of air, thinking about how you needed to let yourself be open to help before you could help yourself.

Step one - admit that there's a problem to be had. Then you can fix it.

Feferi nodded sagely, her hair falling over the back of Jane's head like a Halloween wig, and kissed Jane's head from behind. Meenah even leaned up and kissed Jane on the forehead, pulling the spooning duo just a little bit closer, grabbing the covers and pulling them up over their arms. She was so warm in between the two of them, her winter body thawed by spring and summer, she felt blood flowing again through her limbs, and her face, and she was sure she had turned a bright crab-like red, appropriately enough for her nautical kinfolk. "And I think I want to see you two more in general. But not Mother."

"Fair." Meenah chimed in, while Feferi only chuckled softly. Oh, that little huff of ha-ha-has in Jane's ear made her shiver and shudder, and from the way Feferi pressed back up against her, she was sure Feferi could tell. Maybe with this newfound slyness revealed, she would be changing things up in their intimate relations. Only time would tell.

"Yeah, she can suck eggs for all I care." Jane laughed, as the loose cuddle association got closer and closer, melting into more of a cuddle puddle, all listening to the dulcet tones of Alton Brown instructing people on fried chicken, or something of the like. The episode had just rolled over, but the noises were all the same, dissolved into some kind of inimitable background static that provided valuable cushioning for their sounds and thoughts. "I'm gonna go home and start looking around for culinary schools. And I'll..."

It took a minute for her to think. "Turn over your company to someone else?" Feferi suggested, leaving Jane to shake her head.

"Regardless of my multiple epiphanies, I don't think that's in the card. I  _do_ value my job at Crockercorp... I just think it might not need me as much as I need it. Or needed it. I haven't gotten a single panicked text or voicemail today, nor any email beyond the usual ones that I get on days like this. Well, not days like this literally, but more of a "On Fridays" thing. Yeah." Jane said, rejecting the idea out of hand. Still, the seed was planted, and she would... Not consider it immediately. But it would be there, slowly growing, feeding itself beyond a reasonable doubt. "I think I'll be taking a break, though. Not stepping down, but going to sleep, and then the giant will awaken later!"

"Sounds like a plan, Crock." Meenah affirmed, giving her a little squeeze before returning to the previous arm-tension.

Jane looked up at Meenah, and then looked back at Feferi, weighing her options. She snuck her hands around to grab the two of them by the back of the head, gently tangling fistfuls of hair, and pulled them both in close, closer, closer, like she was preparing to teach them a secret about the universe.

There were, unfortunately, no secrets to be had. She just kissed Feferi, and then Meenah, and then Feferi again. And then Meenah again. And then, for good measure, Feferi again.

Meenah's hand started rolling up Jane's nightie, and Feferi began to kiss back, down Jane's neck.

* * *

A bell rang its chimeful little ding-a-ling-a-ling as the latest customer left the bakery happy with a handful of muffins packed in a bag.

Jane Crocker, ex-heiress, wasn't the world's best baker by a long shot. She wasn't as fit and muscular as her step-sisters, but that was okay, because she looked in the mirror every morning and saw her tiny little developing wrinkles and her chubby tummy and thought "Yeah, that's fine. I like myself like that."

The sun would filter through her bedroom at 4:30 in the morning, and she'd have to get up for the bread. Had to get started on that earlier than everything else. A lot of people thought she was kind of crazy, but she had enough saved up in smart stock options that when she left, she could take everything she needed with her. Her partners were still asleep, but she would roll over each morning, kiss them both on the back of the head, and then roll back out of bed, expecting to see them only after a long day of hard-earned effort, getting to spend the rest of the evening with them after a long day of baking and flour and my oh my.

Jane was the happiest she had ever been in her entire life. The day would only get happier when one of her two loves sashayed her way across the threshold of her bakery, chiming Jane's bells in the process. A tip of her wide-brimmed hat and a shark-like grin as the air pressure difference made her billowing hair swirl behind her.

"Day off?" Jane asked, wiping floured hands down across her apron.

"It's my company, I can reely come and go as I please! Seeing you is better than another boardroom meeting, anyway."


End file.
